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Life Savers, that little candy with the hole in the middle, has long standing roots in American society.

Ever wonder how Life Savers candy is made? Don’t deny it, we all have. How do they get them all the same size? How do they put the little hole in the middle? And, of course, what happened to the candy that was where the hole is before they made the hole?

The answer turns out to depend on what kind of Life Savers you mean. Mints (Pep-0-Mint, Wintergreen, etc.) are made from a paste of sugar, corn syrup, and mint oils pressed into tiny doughnut-shaped molds. Drops (fruit flavors, etc.) are a bit trickier. The flavoring is mixed into corn syrup, into which a rod is then dipped, forming a “rope” of candy. The hole is actually the space taken up by the rod in the center of the “rope,” which is then cut from each side to make the final candies. So in neither case is there ever any missing candy from the hole.

There was a time, when ocean liners were the only way to cross the Atlantic, when the origin of the name Life Savers would have seemed obvious. But in a sense the whole story really revolves around the weather in Cleveland, Ohio.

Clarence Crane was a candy maker in Cleveland in 1912, doing well with his line of chocolates, but Crane had a problem. In fact, all of Cleveland had a problem in the years before air-conditioning became common. The summers in the city were so hot and humid that chocolate candy became chocolate glop that no one wanted to buy. To a candy maker like Crane, this made summer a definite dud.

So Crane set out to invent a “summer candy” that wouldn’t melt. Hard candy mints at that time were almost all imported from Europe, little square pillow-shaped things that came in cardboard tubes. Crane’s inspiration was to hire a pill maker to press his candies into the novel doughnut shape. Noting the resemblance his new mints bore to the classic life preserver flotation rings carried on the passenger boats of the day, Crane christened them Life Savers and even embossed the name on one side, the way a ship’s life preservers would be marked. After registering his trademark, Crane then sold the whole shebang (for just $2,900) to Edward Noble, who subsequently designed the foil-wrapped roll package that is still used today.

Angela Abbette writes on a variety of subjects, including food and drink articles similar to the ones found at her favorite best article directory.

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